Duchess Mecklen’s Elegant Revolt - Chapter 35 Part 9

“I’ll take my punishment. But even if I’m punished, I must see that woman die first!”

Count Verdik, agitated, seemed deaf to all else.

As the knights held back his flailing arms, Caroline, barely catching her breath, glared back and forth between Count Verdik and Saruka.

“You dare betray me?”

“There’s one more.”

Saruka replied in a flat voice, unflinching under Caroline’s burning stare.

“Caroline also ordered me to assassinate Director Eleanor.”

“……!”

“She wanted me to kill the head of House Hippias, Henrik, too. But I failed to complete that job.”

That was back when Caroline, furious and injured, had summoned Saruka to the capital.

He had taken the assassination job targeting Eleanor and Henrik but failed when he was chased by an imperial knight.

Henrik’s face twisted viciously as he listened. “You… You even tried to kill me and my sister…?”

“And Marquis Delph. He hired me behind Caroline’s back to carry out another murder. He wanted me to capture, torture, and kill those investigating the Balkan Trading Company in East Harlem. I can give you the list if you want.”

Now Marquis Delph, like Caroline before him, turned pale.

Another wave of jeers erupted from the audience.

With every new testimony Saruka gave, Delph and Caroline sank deeper into ruin.

Caroline, increasingly desperate, had no way out.

She had even confessed just to survive.

Public opinion among the nobles only grew harsher.

“Isn’t this beyond any excuse?”

“She dared to harbor treasonous thoughts against the Imperial Family—she must not be spared.”

“Just kill them both, Delph and Caroline!”

“Yes, kill them!”

Driven into a corner, Caroline turned to Eleanor. “You promised!”

“……”

“You said you’d spare me if I confessed. I’m not hiding anything anymore. That’s everything I know!”

“……”

“Then fine! Take Delph’s daughter! Once you learn how she killed Madam Müller, you won’t be able to blame only me! Vivia used the poisonous allium to kill her!”

Vivia, suddenly named, turned pale as a sheet.

But Caroline’s last-ditch accusation had no effect on Eleanor.

She had already heard everything from Russell.

In fact, the Müller family’s maid, Revoni, was already waiting as a witness to expose Vivia’s crimes.

Instead of responding, Eleanor studied the flailing Caroline carefully.

Though she was still shouting, something seemed off.

‘She looks half out of her mind.’

Eleanor tilted her head slightly. “Yes, I always keep my promises.”

“Then…!”

A flicker of hope lit Caroline’s face.

But the flicker died in an instant.

“But treason… is outside my jurisdiction.”

“……!”

It collapsed in less than a second.

“That’s a matter for His Majesty to decide.”

Caroline nearly collapsed but barely managed to stay standing, clenching her jaw.

“You promised… you said you’d spare me…”

“Was there ever enough trust between us for such a promise to mean anything?”

“You, you…!”

“Can we even talk about trust when the rift between us runs so deep?”

Eleanor’s smile was soft and graceful, yet laced with mercilessness.

Wandering in despair, Caroline clutched her head. “Someone… someone help me.”

Her eyes, now directionless, turned toward the audience.

Not a single noble responded.

They either ignored her or returned only curses.

As she scanned them, Caroline belatedly searched for her son.

“Ernst, my son. Where are you…?”

Ernst had long since left the courtroom.

He couldn’t bear to stay after Caroline began spilling everything.

Duke Nestor, glancing at the empty seat, quietly clicked his tongue.

“…Why won’t anyone help me.”

Despair engulfed her.

“All of you… You’re the same. I worked so hard to seize this place. Isn’t killing a few people just part of what it takes to protect what’s yours?”

Caroline felt wronged.

Her past, the one that had brought her here, flashed before her eyes like a reel of memories.

“You’re Caroline, right? From now on, you’ll be our daughter.”

Born into poverty, her first stroke of luck had been being adopted by a wealthy relative.

At first, it felt like having the whole world.

The affection of her foster parents, the attention from others, the luxurious mansion—she thought all of it was hers.

But after the family matron, who was thought to be barren, became pregnant, the household’s attitude toward her changed.

“What do we do with this nuisance?”

“Can’t send her back now. Just find something for her to do.”

In an instant, the title of ‘daughter’ was taken and given to the newborn child.

Caroline gave up her lavish bedroom to the real daughter and was moved into a servant’s side room.

“To survive, to protect what’s mine—I have to do anything.”

“Monster! Just die already!”

“That’s how I can live happily.”

Unable to endure the worsening abuse, Caroline fled to the academy.

There, she discovered a new world.

Nobles who lived in extravagance beyond anything her family ever knew.

As she watched those born with everything, Caroline became painfully aware of her insignificance.

“Do I look happy to you?”

The first time she met Rachel at a party, the woman spoke with elegance and grace.

“I envy your freedom.”

Caroline’s rambling pupils had now gone glassy.

Her bloodshot eyes, on the verge of tears, fixed on Eleanor.

“Blond women should all die.”

She saw a hallucination.

Beside Eleanor stood Rachel—not the Rachel she strangled to death, but one in a pale green gown, her slender neck elongated, elegantly fanning herself with a smile.

“Will you be my friend?”

“…Don’t mock me.”

“It’s okay. Even without a fancy dress, you’re beautiful enough.”

Don’t mock me.

“Don’t mock me—!!!”

“W-what’s wrong with her?”

“Did she just snap or something?”

People gasped in shock as Caroline screamed at the air.

“Friends? You kept me around with that word while enjoying how everyone compared me to you—the beloved, successful one. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

Caroline charged at Eleanor.

More precisely, she lunged at the hallucination of Rachel overlaid atop Eleanor.

But she never reached her.

Prepared for such an outburst, the knights grabbed Caroline without delay.

Caroline thrashed and shrieked like a woman possessed, stomping her feet wildly.

“Aaaaargh—!”

“Not worth listening to any longer.”

The Emperor, who had observed everything, rose from his seat.

Eleanor simply stared at Caroline, her face twisted between laughter and tears.

“Take her away.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The Emperor, restoring order to the court, gestured to the judge.

It was time to bring it to a close.

***

The trial resumed, but the remaining questioning moved swiftly.

Vivia, the final defendant, had given up everything.

After the testimony of Revoni, the maid of House Müller, Vivia looked even more defeated.

Resigned to her scheduled death, she wore a pained expression but, unlike her father, Marquis Delph, confessed to all her crimes.

She even gave new testimony.

“It was my father who spread the rumor that Princess Hartmann was a spoiled, hedonistic royal. I’m sorry.”

Upon hearing the truth, the Emperor almost erupted in rage, but Eleanor’s return to her seat beside him prevented bloodshed in the courtroom.

Not a single spectator left until all the questioning ended.

The judge cleared his throat as the final verdict approached.

“I will now announce the sentence.”

All eyes, including those of the guilty, turned to him.

“Daniel von Delph, Vivia von Delph, Caroline von Mecklen.”

The three named individuals—

“Are all sentenced to death.”

Though unspoken, it was the ending everyone had expected.

There was no twist.

As the judge’s gavel struck, Vivia quietly lowered her head.

Beside her, Marquis Delph looked completely hollow.

***

“Today’s the execution day, isn’t it?”

“Finally, we get to see the disgusting faces of those nobles.”

“Will that murderer Saruka be there too?”

“I heard he’ll be executed separately.”

“Too bad. I wanted to see him—heard he’s hideous.”

“Is Duke Mecklen not being punished? How could he not have known what his mother did?”

“Exactly. She even tried to assassinate the Empress Dowager. Could he really have not known?”

“Hey, they’re coming out!”

Outside the castle, the crowd watched the condemned as they were dragged out.

Bound at the wrists, they looked pitiful.

The older woman at the end looked half-crazed.

“Heehee. Duchess… I’m the Duchess…”

“Good god, she’s mad.”

“She’s totally lost it.”

Some clicked their tongues.

But none showed sympathy.

According to reports in Fox, these were heinous criminals who deserved to be stoned.

First to mount the scaffold were Vivia and Reboni, the maid of House Müller.

“She looks young. Is that Delph’s daughter?”

“Wow. She looks so normal and pretty—hard to believe she’s a killer.”

“Looks aren’t everything.”

“Who’s the woman next to her?”

“They say she helped Vivia with the murder.”

Kneeling with her neck on the hard wooden block, Vivia unconsciously turned her head.

Revoni, in the same position, was staring at her.

Vivia frowned. “Stop looking at me like that…”

Revoni smiled faintly. “But I like it. Because I get to see you die with my own eyes, Miss Vivia.”

“……”

It was pure, unfiltered hatred.

And this moment marked the peak of Revoni’s long-awaited revenge.

Vivia, reading the hatred in her eyes, silently closed her mouth.

“—For these reasons, you are sentenced to death by guillotine!”

The executioner read the decree issued by the Emperor.

The blade fell, and the two women’s heads rolled in an instant.

Vivia’s severed head tumbled all the way to her father’s feet.

“Next: Daniel von Delph, Caroline von Mecklen.”

Only then did the dazed Marquis Delph return to his senses.

Kneeling where his daughter had just died, he felt the wet blood and shivered.

Caroline took Revoni’s place.

“Heehee. Heeheehee. Marquis Delph, hee.”

“……”

To be stuck with her in the end.

Marquis Delph lowered his head.

Eleanor once said the blue sky seen from the scaffold must be beautiful—but Marquis Delph couldn’t bring himself to lie down for her sake.

How many people, after all, could bear to look straight at the blade falling on their own neck?

“Heehee, heeheeheehee.”

Caroline laughed without pause.

Shaking her head so violently that the block trembled, one could barely see the faint tears at the corners of her eyes—far too distant for the onlookers to notice.

“Caroline doesn’t seem mentally sound.”

In the crowd, Eger murmured.

“Duke Mecklen… didn’t come, did he? Even if she was his mother.”

Lennoch, wearing a mask, looked around quietly.

Finding one face among hundreds wasn’t easy.

Instead, Lennoch tightened his grip on Eleanor’s hand. “If it gets too hard, turn your head toward me.”

“…I will.”

Eleanor, cloaked in a thin robe, gave a slight nod.

She knew this wasn’t a sight fit to watch.

Perhaps, when she had died in her previous life, someone had watched the whole thing from just such a distance.

Then the executioner raised the axe after reading his final words.

He was about to cut the rope.

The blade fell on Caroline and Marquis Delph’s necks in the blink of an eye.

“Woooooah—!”

“Long live His Majesty!”

The crowd roared in triumph.

The blood spilled from the rolling heads was red—and brilliant.